my experience has been that actual rain is faster than semi-dry
conditions because even though there may be less grip, it is at least
consistent. when it stops raining, the still water lifts the oil and
dirt to the surface. a few patches of this and your tires have less
grip than if it is raining which rinses the dirt and oil down. you cant
drive aggressively anywhere it because some invisible patch will put you
way off, not result in a small mistake you can correct like in true rain
or dry conditions.
my last piece of advice is: if you are going to be out of control
anyway, you might as well be going fast.
james
OSP - Ophiuchus Slaloms Puddles
PAUL TIBBALS wrote:
>Pete,
>Pretty much as James mentioned, though he wasn't hardly there during any rain
>after sleeping in.... Rain was fairly heavy during setup and first group and
>then tapered to little to no rain around the beginning of second group, though
>the rivers stayed active until the lunch break.
>
>The surface was not at all comparable to the gravelfest at the North lot
>earlier in the season, it was significantly better. It was, when wet, not
>high grip, and the grip did vary substantially from place to place when I ran
>at the end of the 2nd group (a.k.a. roughly a 4th group position as we
>combined them). I'm thinking it was because you could not see the gravel berm
>while it was still so wet.... Comparing to early in the Season when it rained
>at the Coliseum South lot, maybe Round 3 I think, grip was less predictable
>this time and maybe somewhat lower when wet. It looked like things improved
>as it got drier though in the post-lunch groups. At least you could see the
>berm then.
>
>But that doesn't explain why Mervich did so darned well in the driving rain, a
>second and a half better time in the downpour than I got on just "wet"
>course.... I was able to keep equal or better than he did at the last rain
>event! Nice job, Mark; you can't beef about 1st out of one in class with a
>PAX placement like that.
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